Promised Land

[20] INTERLUDE II

Wilbur is calm.

Not calm and stoic like Technoblade can be, sometimes, not the fatherly calm Phil seems to radiate most days-- no, he feels emotions on the regular.

Maybe a little too deeply. Maybe it's from being raised by Phil his whole life. Emotions, deepness, all that. But where Tommy is energetic, chaotic, Wilbur is calmer.

He can still be a lil' shit sometimes because messing with people is fun, but for the most part, he's calmer than his younger brother and his younger brother's friend.

Well, maybe not Ranboo. But Ranboo was calm but with anxiety, which is a little different.

But he's calm.

Even when the bells ring to warn them that one of the wards have been broken, the melodious song he created himself, maybe he didn't have to be extra with a little tune, but Phil had asked him with help and even though his magic is ice and not sound (a cold irony), he happily obliged.

Still, the tune is haunting, and even though he's calm, he still feels his heart drop.

Tubbo, who had picked Ranboo up-- for whatever goddamn reason, Wilbur was too busy fighting a child-- almost drops him, and the taller boy looks confused by the sound. But Ranboo is easy to read. Too easy. Confusion and fear is plastered across his face.

"That was the one by the garage, right?" Tommy asks. He's still got a bit of ice around his foot, but it's melted considerably, probably a mixture of the child getting the little bit of what's left of warm air to it and the fact that Wilbur didn't freeze the ice, he just created it to stop the kick.

"Yes, it was." Wilbur listens closely. The tune is haunting. He can't see around to the garage. Maybe it isn't too bad. Maybe it's just a small little thing, like the ones that were digging in the trash by the grocery store the other day or a little pest wandering too far from home.

"Tommy, you have the most mobility out of all of us, so get onto the roof and tell me what you see." He's not used to fighting that much. He doesn't like it that much, in all honesty. Killing a dreamon gets its blood everywhere, makes it easier to reform. Purifying it is another thing, something that only Phil has mastered with his own magic and has enchanted other objects to do. He needs to go find something in the house.

"Tubbo, Ranboo, get inside." Ordering makes his mouth feel salty, and he doesn't like it, but when Phil and Techno are out of the house, he's the de facto adult, unfortunately-- at least if he's gone, now, it'll be Ranboo before Tubbo before Tommy. But he knows Ranboo has all-but two experiences with dreamons, both of them ending--

Well, not terribly. But he wasn't fighting them either time. Tommy remembered his pendant on that day and thank fucking god he did, and the other time Techno smited the thing that had been possessing one of his caretakers. He's never had to actually deal with a dreamon like this, and Wilbur can see, even from a few paces away, the anxiety that is--

Tommy screams. They can barely see over the roof of the house, but he's obviously been spotted. Not one for stealth, ironically, when he can use the air to make himself as quiet as a mouse--

"You've got to be fucking kidding me--"

And of course, another tune starts to play. Another ward was breached.

"Nevermind, Tubbo, go help Tommy deal with the one by the garage." Tubbo nods-- he's set Ranboo down by now, and Ranboo looks like he's about to collapse from shaking. It isn't terribly noticeable, but he looks like he's about to cave in on himself.

There's a small buzz in the air. It's the buzz of magic that Wilbur usually hears, the buzz that anyone can hear if they really try, not just of their own magic but of magic everywhere, and it's definitely coming from Ranboo himself. Phil told him to make sure Tommy was gentle with his training, which wouldn't have been a big deal since Tommy hadn't clearly known anything of what he was going to do, but magic was sensitive, and Ranboo was being exposed to a lot at once.